Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1999 15:36:26 +1000
From: Jason
Subject: "Finding Love" Part 7 By: Jinray
Okay. Here we go again. As usual: This story is completely a work of my
imagination, and in no way implies the sexuality of any person mentioned
throughout the story.
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I would like to thank all my readers, especially the ones that e- mail me
their comments.
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"Finding Love" Part 7
By: Jinray
After a while we ended our shake and continued staring into each others
eyes. We were both at a loss of words for some weird, unknown reason.
"This is going to sound strange...maybe even creepy but would you like to
go grab a bite to eat. I know I'm a stranger to you,.....but I would love to
talk about your singing." Josh asked while looking down at his feet.
"You know what I would love to. And were not complete strangers Josh. But
what I don't understand....is why would you want to talk to me about my
singing?"
"I'll explain over dinner." Josh simply stated.
We each drove to some kind of sea food restaurant that Josh
recommended. The restaurant was nearly deserted. A waiter immediately
recognized Josh and seated us quickly in an isolated booth at the back.
"So, eat here often Josh?"
"Yeah! I'm good friends with the owner. Plus, the food is great."
"Okay, I have to ask. Why did you want to talk about my singing?" I asked
inquisitively.
"Well....I'm in the music business, and I love your singing. So I wanted to
talk about your plans." Josh stated
"My plans? I don't have any plans. And what exactly do you do in the music
business?"
"You don't know who I am do you?" Josh asked with a smile.
"Nope...although you do look familiar. Hmmm.?" I looked at Josh closely.
Examining his face. " Are you a singer?"
"Yes." Josh said nodding
"Give me a hint."
"Okay, how about this?" Josh leaned in close and started to sing.
Baby I don't understand
Just why we can't be lovers
.................................
......It's tearing up my heart when i'm with you
But when we are apart I feel it too.
..................................
Josh ended the song and sat back down in his seat. " Well...Do you know who
I am now?" I looked at him again. Trying to figure it out. Then, my face lit
and a smile formed on my face.
"Ohmigod. Your JC from Nsync right? Damn. I don't know why I didn't
recognize you."
"Finally. I was about to give up and just tell you." JC said laughing
A waitress came by and took our orders. After she left, we just sat in
silence. I looked over to Josh and laughed a little.
"What, what's so funny?" JC asked
"Nothing. It's just funny how I seem to run into famous boy band singers."
"What other singer have you met? Was it someone else from Nsync?" Josh
asked excitedly.
"No, it was Brian from the Backstreet Boys. We became close." I looked down
at the table thinking about how much I trusted Brian. " But we aren't
friends anymore."
"What happened. Don't take this the wrong way, but I've met Brian and boy
is he one messed up jack ass." JC said with anger.
"JC. Can we drop the subject?"
"Sure. And don't call me JC. I like it when you call me Josh." He smiled at
me. I felt better, there was something about his smile.
Soon our food arrived. We dug in the second it hit the table. Halfway
through the meal I finally asked, " What did you want to talk about?"
"Oh.. I almost forgot. I think you should come with me tomorrow. I'll
introduce you to some of our managers. I'm sure they'll let you audition."
JC said before putting another forkful of food into his mouth.
"Audition for what?"
"To be our opening act on tour."
"What! No way. Is that possible? I would love to but..." The excitement
disappeared from my face.
"What..what's wrong?" Josh scooted closer to me.
"JC...Josh theres something you have to know about me. I....I'm gay." Then,
we fell into complete silence. " I'll understand if you take back your
offer." I started to get up, when JC grabbed my hand and pulled me back to
my seat.
"So. What does that have to do with anything?"
"You mean you don't care."
"Why should I? There's nothing wrong with being gay. Besides, with your
voice you can do whatever you want." JC put his arm and on my shoulder and
smiled.
We finished eating and just sat there chatting about music and all sorts of
stuff. Then Josh gave me his number and said to call him in the morning for
directions to the auditions. We said our good byes and got into our own
separate cars.
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The next morning
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The sunlight slowly shun its way through the bedroom curtain and hit my
face with warmth. I groaned at the feeling of just waking up and winced a
little as I opened my eyes. I was surprised to see that it was already seven
o' clock. I've never woken up that late. With one swift move, I was sitting
at the edge of the bed and started to think about what it was I had to do
today. Then, I remembered.
"Oh shit! I'm supposed to audition today." I raced for the bathroom.
Stepping in, I showered quickly and raced back to the bedroom. I had to find
something very nice to wear, but couldn't find anything. ' Okay. Calm down
Jason. Breathe in breathe out. Wear something that makes you comfortable.
Just be yourself' Finally, I decided on wearing a pair of light blue jeans
and a button down shirt, with a whit undershirt. I decided on leaving the
buttons open. Glancing over at the mirror, I knew that I would be
comfortable with the outfit I picked out. I snapped out of it and called
Josh.
" Hello." Josh answered after just the first ring.
"Josh. That was fast. This is Jason."
"Good morning Jason. Listen, change of plans. Give me your address and I'll
come pick you up."
"Umm..okay I live at blah blah blah."
"Great I'll be there in about thirty minutes. Okay."
"Cool."
"Okay Bye."With that I hung up the phone. I decided on practicing, so I
popped some CD's into the player and sang along. I was having so much fun
that I didn't hear the knocks that were coming from the door. But I did
manage to hear the knock on the window. I shut the player off, grabbed my
wallet, and ran to the door.
"It's about time Mr." Josh said with a smile.
"Sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
We left my apartment and headed for the auditions. JC turned on his CD
player and immediately started to sing.
"Didn't know you liked Alanis Moirsettes music?" I said with a smile.
"Oh. I love Alanis's music."
"So do I." I started to sing along with him.
Finally, we pulled into this 3- story building. " Were here" JC said as he
shut the engine off. We walked into the building and rode the elevator up to
the second floor. As the elevator stopped, my heart began to race. I was
nervous as hell. JC noticed.
"Jason man just relax you'll do fine."
"I hope so."
We stepped out of the elevator and walked up to a door. JC pulled out this
card thingy and slid it through this other thingy. The doors unlocked and
opened. JC motioned me in. As I stepped in I was taken back by the sight of
the room. The walls had mirrors all around, There was a big screen TV in one
corner, a refrigerator, and two huge couches. The room was very huge and had
very large windows on one wall, which overlooked the parking lot.
"Nice huh?"
"Yeah" was all I could muster out.
"the guys and I are renting this floor, so we could practice and stuff." JC
said as I looked out the window.
"Where is everyone?" I asked as I turned around.
"Oh, they'll be here in about thirty minutes. Want something to drink?" JC
asked as he walked to the refrigerator. Before I could answer he threw me a
Coke and motioned for me to come and sit down. Josh and I watched TV while
waiting for the guys.
"Wanna do something fun?" JC asked with a huge smile.
"What?"
"Take off your shoes." JC said as he started kicking off his shoes. I
looked at him strangely for a second and then followed suite.
"What now?" I asked
"This!" Josh ran real fast and started sliding on the floor. I never
noticed but the floor was so shiny. Soon we were both sliding back and forth
the huge room like Tom Cruise. We kept laughing and pushing each other.
"Look at me." Josh said as he ran from the end of the room and started to
slide towards the door. Just then the door flew open and Josh slammed into
the guys who were carrying some equipment. There was a chorus of groans. I
couldn't help it, I broke out into laughter. I just couldn't stop. Soon I
was on my knees laughing as tears rolled down my cheeks. Josh stood up first
and looked at me. I closed my eyes and laughed even harder. When I opened
them I saw Josh running towards me. But my laughter wouldn't allow me to run
for cover, and before I knew it Josh was sitting on top of me and tickling
me like a mad man.
"J...J...Josh stop...I'm...I'm sorry....please." I managed to plead in
between laughter. But Josh didn't stop.
"Josh....I might wet myself." After saying that Josh immediately stopped
and jumped off me. I calmed down a bit and propped up on my elbows looking
up at the grinning Josh.
"See what you get for laughing at me." Josh laughed. I just grinned back at
him. He got up and started to walk back to the couch when he slipped and
fell on his butt. Josh quickly glanced over at me. I stared at him with the
hugest grin on my face. I locked my lips together to not laugh. Josh turned
around and I immediately broke into laughter again. The sight and sound of
him slipping and falling again was just too much. And before I knew it Josh
was on top of me. Not tickling this time, just sitting on my stomach making
hard for me to breathe. After about three minutes he got off and walked back
to the couch.
I calmed myself down and just lied there on the floor, staring up at
the mirrors on the wall. Then, a hand was reaching out to help me up. It was
Joeys. I grabbed it and soon I was standing in front of this guy who looked
like he stole Ronald McDonald's hair. He shook my hand.
"I'm Joey."
"I'm Jason." Joey looked at me and laughed a little before walking away.
Then out of nowhere Justin came running at me. He shooked my hand violently
and then took off running and then he jumped and flew onto the couch and
stealing the remote away JC. They started to wrestle.
"Excuse me." I heard someone say from behind me. I turned around and saw
Lance and Chris.
"I'm Lance and this is Chris." I shook both of their hands.
"So, Jason ready to show us your stuff" Chris asked.
"I guess so."
"Cool. Give us a few minutes to set something's up and then we can start."
Lance said before walking away.
I walked back to the couch and sat on the armrest. JC and Justin were
really enjoying what they were watching, cause they didn't even speak a
word. Hell, I didn't even notice what they were watching because I was too
busy staring at Josh. But then something familiar caught my ear. I shot a
look at the TV screen, and there I was sitting on a stool singing. I was so
embarrassed. I just stared at myself when I noticed that it was recorded
the night when Brian showed up with his new boyfriend. I remembered stopping
the band and switching to sing Jann Arden's " Insensitive". I was thinking
about how much the words of the song expressed how I was feeling. Then, I
was brought back to the present when I started to sing the chorus to " You
Oughtta Know" by Alanis Moirsette. Tears were running down my face as I
stood from the stool and literally let all my anger and pain pour out
through my performance. As the song ended, I got up and walked to the end of
the room and stared blankly out the window. Josh and Justin shot a look of
concern at each other. Josh started to walk towards me, but I turned around
looked at him then smiled. I decided that I wasn't going to get all
depressed today. I gave Josh a smile to let him know that I was okay. Just
then Chris peeked his head through a door and said for us to come over to
the next room, because rehearsals were about to start.
Justin, Josh, and I walked out of the room and into another, which
looked exactly the same except there was no TV and stuff. Lance, Joey, and
Chris had set up a camera and some stuff in the middle of the room. I looked
around and saw about four other guys I had never seen before. They all
looked kind of nervous.
"Ok guys, we'll start by drawing numbers to see who goes first." Lance said
as he passed a hat around with paper inside. When he finally got to me, I
became nervous again. I reached into the hat and pulled out the last
remaining paper. Unfolding it with trembling hands, I had picked # 5 which
meant I was last.
"Whoever got #1, step up to the camera." Joey said.
A guy that looked to be the same age as me walked up to the camera. Each of
the guys asked him questions- practically like an interrogation. After that,
they handed him a mic and made him pick his music. He performed in front of
the camera sitting on a stool until he was finished.
This continued on until it was my turn to go in front of the camera. I
approached the, now very warm, stool and sat down. The guys asked me their
questions and then asked what was my selection to perform. I was stumped.
The other four guys obviously were prepared, because each brought their own
choice of CD's to sing from.[ Nsync had this thing that blocked out the
vocals from the CD]
"Sorry, I didn't know we were supposed to......" I satarted to say.
"Oh that's my fault. I forgot to tell him. But that's okay I brought some
of my CD's." JC said as he ran to a CD case on the far corner of the room.
When he got back to me, he opened it and held it out for me to choose. I
looked at the numerous selections, all of which I liked, and finally picked
Mariah Carey's song, " Hero." JC went over to put the CD in while I walked
over to the stool and sat down. As the music slowly started, I once again cl
osed my eyes and went into my own world again.
Right in the middle of the song, the CD skipped and went to another song. I
immediately noticed it to be the start of " I'll Be There" so I sang with
it- still with my eyes closed. I was singing Mariah's part when I remembered
it was a duet, and I didn't quite remember the guys part to the song. Then
all of a sudden Josh started to sing the guys part. He stood next to me. His
voice was so beautiful. It was fun and exciting singing with Josh.
As the song came to an end, everyone in the room started to clap. In a
way I was sort of embarrassed. Josh and I took a bow in front of the camera
and then walked out of the cameras view.
"Wow. That was excellent." I said in amazement.
"I know. That was really fun." Josh said with a smile.
"Okay everyone. We'll take these tapes and go over them with our managers.
If you are picked we'll give you a call tomorrow." Lance said into the
microphone.
Everyone left. Josh was giving me a ride back home. I couldn't believe it
was dark already.
"You know what. I'm practically starving right now. And since you treated
me to dinner last night, it's my turn tonight." I said with a smile.
"That sounds good, but I'm not really in the mood for eating out." Josh
said
"Well then, were just going to have to order some pizza."
"Sounds good to me. Hey, we can even rent some movies." JC said with a
smile.
We stopped by a video shop and picked up some movies. Then, we went
back to my place and ordered some pizza. Josh and I watched all kinds of
movies and ate a lot of pizza. Before anyone of us knew it, we had fallen
asleep on the couch together.
To Be Continued.........................
There you have it. All comments and suggestions are welcomed:
sheragem@ite.net.
Please read " The Truth"- It's a story in which I co- wrote with my friend
Toby. So, go read it.